Sunday, December 20, 2015

Light Candles of Hope for Hunger-Striking Abuse Survivor MM and her Children: December 20-31, 2015

"In keeping with the government's commitment to helping women and children fleeing violence at home, the Minister of Justice should stop the extradition of a single mom to Georgia." – Jenny Kwan, NDP Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship critic

Canadian abuse survivor MM is behind bars fighting extradition to the USA for the alleged "crime" of saving her kids from an abusive father. Three of 7 Canadian Supreme Court Justices insisted on December 11 that the case against her be dropped and that MM be allowed to stay in Canada in the best interests of her children. They also pointed out that MM has no proper legal defence available to her in the USA.

December 20 marks Day 9 of MM's prison hunger strike, which will last until Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould decides if she will reconsider the case and, hopefully, stop this unjust, oppressive extradition that shocks our conscience.

MM is in good spirits because of the strong support she is receiving from across Canada. Hundreds have called, written, emailed, and tweeted the Justice Minister, but still there is no word.

How much longer must MM wait? How much longer must her children suffer the agonizing limbo of wondering if they shall spend the rest of their childhood as orphans?

The new Trudeau government has committed to a national action plan to end violence against women. Surely, one of the first items on that agenda should be a refusal to criminalize a mother who protected her children from abuse.

LIGHTING CANDLES
From December 20-31, we ask that you pledge to light a candle of hope each night for MM and her children, and that each day, you send a simple message to the Justice Minister ( jody.Wilson-Raybould@parl.gc.ca, Cdncentralauthority@justice.gc.ca, Sean.Casey@parl.gc.ca, mcu@justice.gc.ca, tasc@web.ca) that would read something like this (feel free to personalize):

Today, Day 9 of MM's prison hunger strike, I am lighting a candle of hope for Canadian abuse survivors MM and her children. Please stop this extradition and allow MM to raise her kids in Canada. It is not a crime to save your children from abuse.

Tailor each day's email to reflect another day of being on hunger strike ( December 21 will mark Day 10, December 22 will mark Day 11, etc etc.

Make sure MM is referenced in the subject line of your email.

If you tweet, please go to Jody Wilson-Raybould @Puglaas PLS and ask her to Stop Extradition of MM: Saving Children From Abuse is NOT a Crime

Feel free to include the following quote as well:

"At the end of the day, there is little demonstrable harm to the integrity of our extradition process in finding it to be unjust or oppressive to extradite the mother of young children she rescued, at their request, from their abusive father. The harm, on the other hand, of depriving the children of their mother in these circumstances is profound and, with respect, demonstrably unfair....To surrender the mother for her conduct in protecting the children is to penalize them for reaching out to her by depriving them of the only parent who can look after them. Moreover, because the defence of rescuing children to protect them from imminent harm does not exist in Georgia, the mother will not be able to raise the defence she would have been able to raise had she been prosecuted in Canada." – Justice Rosalie Abella, Supreme Court of Canada

Thanks!

Women Who Choose to Live, on behalf of MM and her kids (who cannot be identified due to a publication ban)
http://womenwhochoosetolive.blogspot.ca/